Estudo de viabilidade técnica da explotação de sais de potássio no subsolo marinho utilizando lavra por dissolução

Abstract

The study of the technical feasibility of exploiting potassium salts in the sea undeground, more precisely of an anomaly mapped by the Companhia de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais (CPRM) on the coast of Sergipe, aims to enable the economic exploitation of a scarce mineral resource in Brazil, through of use of solution mining. To this end, a technical-scientific partnership was made between Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and National Agency of the Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), where the ANP provided us with a series of technical data from wells drilled by oil companies. Data such as descriptions of channel samples, composite profile, well profiling data, geophysics, gravimetry, magnetrometry and other studies of the area of interest. Subsequently, these data were worked using petrographic tools, in order to characterize the anomaly of the existing potassium salts. To this end, the profile data will be processed (gamma rays, neutrons, resistance, etc.) to create a filter that facilitates the separation of potassium salts from other salts. Resistivity, for example, was used to distinguish evaporites from other types of sedimentary rocks (salts have low resistivity). Therefore, with the combination of the seismic interpretation and the description of the wells, the geological modelling of the mineral body is carried out with the aim of defining whether it was a mineral occurrence or a deposit. Subsequently, the best parameters of exploitation, equipment, pumping rate, beneficiation route and disposal of rejects were defined, that is, aiming at the possible exploitation of these minerals.